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Tuesday, March 1, 2011

My 6 Year Old Knows Astrophysics

My 6 year old: MOMMY! MOMMY! Do you know that the water goes up and down?

We were at the beach and she noticed the tides

Wife: Yeah, sweetpea.

6 Year Old: Do you know why? (she doesn't wait for a response) the water follows the moon around!

Yes, I know that O'Reilly actually knows that the gravitational pull of the moon affects the tides of our oceans. He said so, but then he blew it again.

Here, little kids, once again show us the way.

Just looking at my daughter's wide eyed appreciation of what I have just told her (right before she went running to her mom to share her new-found knowledge) and seeing that she is open to finding things out stands in stark contrast to O'Reilly's smug response to "pinheads" everywhere.

On the one hand she is a sponge waiting to soak up more knowledge, and on the other, he is like a rock; nothing else can fit into his head. He's all booked up, there's no more room for doubt. He is certain, beyond any shadow of doubt, of the why's of things.

In the end, it's just like Stephen Colbert's summary of O'Reily's theology: "There must be a god, because I don't know how things work." or how they got here I might add.

I guess I would ask him: What is wrong with letting people try to find the answer to those questions? And, don't you think you should find a better reason to believe in god other than the one you keep repeating?

Just to be clear, Stephen Colbert is a practicing Catholic and Sunday school teacher and obviously very confident in his own believes to be swayed so easily, unlike a certain Fox News personality.